MaxLinear Sees ‘Meaningful’ Gigabit DOCSIS 3.0 Opportunity

Recent operator and OEM customer activity suggests that there could be a “meaningful” opportunity for 1-Gig-capable DOCSIS 3.0-based modems in the next year to 18 months, MaxLinear CEO Kishore Seendripu said Monday on the company’s second quarter earnings call.

Of recent note, Hitron introduced the CDA3-35, a 32-channel DOCSIS 3.0 modem that’s equipped with Intel’s Puma 6-MG DOCSIS processor and MaxLinear’s 32-channel MxL268 tuner. The device, which is capable of downstream bursts of up to 1.2 Gbps in North American DOCSIS systems, is being deployed by Suddenlink Communications and GCI.

Seendripu said some MSOs are looking to deliver gigabit speeds with DOCSIS 3.0, while others are more focused on the deploying DOCSIS 3.1, an emerging platform that will support multi-gigabit speeds. Comcast and Liberty Global are among the major operators that are pushing hard on DOCSIS 3.1.